Ateneo Grad to Represent Philippines in International Digital Congress

Mr. Omar Aguilar, an Ateneo de Naga graduate of B.S. in Digital Illustration and Animation, is going places! Early this year, he clinched the Grand Prize in the Annual Animation Competition sponsored by the Center for International Trade, Expositions and Missions in the Philippines for his creation dubbed “Goat It.” Now, he is Paris-bound as the Philippine representative to the First Digital Media Meeting in Paris, France that will run from July 1st to the 23rd, 2005.

A scene from “Goat It.”

Mr. Aguilar is a fresh graduate of the Ateneo de Naga University. Last February 17-18, Mr. Aguilar, with fellow DIA majors of the Ateneo, bested other contestants from top universities and animation houses in Metro Manila by bagging no less than the Grand Prize in the said competition. Aside from this, Mr. Aguilar, together with DIA students Paolo Arcilla and Joel Arcilla Jr., also took home the runner-up trophy for their work “The Man Who Wanted to Fly.”

A scene from “The Man Who Wanted to Fly.”

Since the establishment of the Digital Arts and Animation course in Ateneo de Naga three years ago, its animation students have consistently swept all the major awards in this annual national competition. Significantly, it is now expanding by exploring the mettle of their students and graduates in the international scene.

Animazing Shorts 2005 winners (from left to right): Ms. Grace Dimaranan,
Vice- President of the Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. and Managing Director of Top Peg Animation Studios; Mr. Ricardo Banaag, Country Manager, Intel Philippines ; Asec. Felicitas R. Agoncillo-Reyes, Executive Director, Center for International Trade, Expositions and Missions (CITEM); Mr. Richard Padilla, President, Challenge Systems, Inc., Philippine distributor of Alias Maya Animation Software; and the creators of Goat It! (Grand Prize) and The Man Who Wanted To Fly (Runner-Up) — Omar P. Aguilar, Paolo T. Arcilla, Kim Wendell P. Layosa, Joel C. Arcilla Jr., and
Chris Ivan Robert P. Ceres.